1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an orientation detection device, an orientation detection method and a program storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a musical performance device has been proposed which detects the playing motion of an instrument player and emits a sound corresponding to the playing motion. For example, a musical performance device is known which emits a percussion sound with a structure only including a drumstick-shaped member. In this musical performance device, a sensor is provided to its drumstick-shaped member. When the instrument player holds and swings the member by hand, the sensor detects the playing motion, and a percussion sound is emitted.
With this virtual musical performance device, a musical sound of a musical instrument can be emitted without requiring a real musical instrument, and therefore the instrument player can enjoy playing without restrictions on a playing place or a playing space.
As a virtual musical performance device as described above, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) Publication No. 2007-256736 discloses a musical performance device which is structured such that an acceleration sensor is provided to a drumstick-shaped member, and emits a musical sound after an output (an acceleration value) obtained from the acceleration sensor by shaking the member reaches a predetermined threshold.
Meanwhile, in the virtual musical performance device, a different musical sound is often provided for each different playing motion of an instrument player. Also in the configuration of the musical performance device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) Publication No. 2007-256736, a geomagnetic sensor is used to determine the orientation of the drumstick-shaped member and a musical sound of a different timbre can be emitted according to the orientation. In this case, however, since a sound source can be placed only in a horizontal direction, the maximum number of sound sources is three or four, and sound sources more than this cannot be placed. Moreover, since the geomagnetic sensor is vulnerable to disturbances and unstable, if the geomagnetic sensor is moved at high speed as the drumstick, accuracy of azimuth estimation is degraded.